RE: OAH Case #2012c-BHS-0338-DHS The Evolution Of A Grievance: Wherein, following over one full year of systematic suppression of my right to due process in relation to a criminally imposed sequence of administrative abuse of authority at The Arizona State Hospital, I prepare to go to hearing.


THIS IS AN ONGOING ARTICLE THAT BEGAN LESS THAN 24 HOURS AGO (SEE "RE: ADHS ADHS/DBHS OGA Docket #H090611S0009), AND RELATES TO AN APRIL 09, 2012, ARTICLE ("FACTS OF LIFE #1-4"), AND EVENTS THAT OCCURRED BEGINNING ON MAY 25, 2011, AND EFFECTIVELY CONCLUDING ON MAY 29, 2011.

       As described in my June 6, 2012, article,  "The Role of the Patient Advocate At The Arizona State Hospital", any time that a patient experiences enough trauma or staff wrongdoing in general that they find themselves compelled to want to report it to the administrative staff at The Arizona State Hospital (ASH), they are required to fill out a one page (or more) grievance/complaint document, which they are then required to submit to the ASH patient advocate, Sonya Serda. In order to submit these critical documents to the patient advocate, patients are required to utilize a mailbox that is located in the day rooms on each patient unit (or ward), but it is a faulty system, at best, because the mail boxes aren't secure (the staff who may have been involved on the matters that any given patient tries to report often have access to those mail boxes, for example), and  I experienced missing grievance documents (aka vanished, as in seized and presumably destroyed) on a number of occasions; and while Sonya Serda tried to convince me that she was sincerely concerned about the matter of seized or otherwise "vanished," her efforts in this context were not very convincing to me given the significance of the issue. So, yeah, the grievance process formally begins once the standard form for such is filled out and submitted, and at that point all the patient can do is wait and hope for the best.
       I had a previously scheduled appointment to meet with John Gallagher at 5:00 p.m. on the day of May 25, 2011, a meeting which we had set up in order to discuss the failure of The Arizona State Hospital (ASH) to abide by a directive (letter) that was presented to administrative officers at ASH by the Arizona Department of Heath Services Office of Human Rights in early May in specific relation to ongoing (unabated) illegal trafficking of tobacco and other illicit substances within the Hospital.  (see articles 6/12/12 and 6/14/12 "Highly Illegal Tobacco Sales by Staff"). 
       As it turned out, though, by the time we actually sat down that day to discuss this issue, something entirely unrelated to the illicit substances problem at ASH had arisen in terms of my personal flow of treatment at ASH, and when I described the dynamics of the current situation to John Gallagher, he reacted very strongly and advised me that my rights were being systematically violated even as we spoke. By the time our coincidentally prescheduled meeting concluded that afternoon, it was apparent that it was very opportune and much to my benefit, because John Gallagher actually witnessed several incidents relating to the criminal misconduct of ASH staff on May 25, 2011, which compelled him to offer me his representation in relation to my obviously legitimate need to protest the unlawful treatment that I was being subjected to at that time through the patient grievance process. For a period of over 72 hours following the incidents  of May 25, 2011, a very egregious sequence of events played out, which I have described somewhat in several very recent articles, and much more thoroughly in an article that I wrote three months ago (see article 04/08/12 "Facts of Life #1-4", specifically Fact #1), which all became central elements to a very serious formal grievance document that John Gallagher drafted and later submitted (on September 02, 2011, thus setting off my being unlawfully transferred from the most peaceful unit at ASH to the most violent as a matter of graphic retaliation: see article o4/09/12 "Facts of Life #3") on my behalf.
       I cannot overemphasize the significance of having someone like John Gallagher step up and take on the role of formally assisting any ASH patient in the process of filing a grievance report against any level or titled staff person at ASH. As I have described, the process as it exists in the realm of ASH is corrupt, and the chances of a patient being granted their lawful rights in terms of seeking meaningful redress when all they have to rely upon is the presence of Sonya Serda and the directly related submittal process are so slim, in my experience, that patients are basically screwed in this context. John Gallagher's willingness to investigate this matter on my behalf and to draft and submit his findings in a formal grievance report, again on my behalf, altered the course of this particular filing 100%. I attest to this with absolute verity, and I am deeply indebted to him for his service in this matter, although in truth, he was only doing his job (as such, basic performance in a place like ASH is an anomaly).  
       Below is Page One of the grievance document that John Gallagher submitted on my behalf:
   

       This document is significant in at least two ways, as follows:

            1) By virtual fact that it is only the first page of a much longer, formally drafted document (ten pages, in fact), this grievance report clearly carries maximum potential in comparison to the standard one page ADHS/ASH grievance/complaint from the patients are required to use within the hospital itself, for the information contained on Page One (above) of this document is far more informative than the entire standard ADHS/ASH even has room to provide. 

            2) The Introduction data included on Page One (above) of this document carries astutely critical information specific to the full breadth of the issues central to this particular matter, which is something that the standard ADHS/ASH form does not provide for in terms of various sections included in that form (in essence, if a patient were to include a range of issues in the way that Page One [above] provides, the patient would be required to fill out one form for each issue in itself, creating a far more onerous amount of energy, and energy in the context of processes such as this is something that many mentally disabled people effectively lack the luxury of).

IN CLOSING: I somewhat expect backlash from anybody from the court assigned to review this case to the parties involved as wrongdoers (as per my allegations) because there is an issue of confidentalism 

and/or privacy. But the only individuals I ever name (in full) in my writing are employees of a public institution, and for the most part, I keep it the higher ranking executive level state workers, such as the ASH Supervisor/CEO, Cory "crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson or his droog, ASH Chief Operation Officer, Donna "you're busted!" Noriega, and other like power mongers, such as the former ASH Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Steven Dingle, and of course, assistant Arizona Attorney General, Joel "the mortician" Rudd. That said, I am already prepared to challenge the fact that the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings considers cases relating to state agencies such as ADHS/BHS as being "confidential," and as such, unavailable for public scrutiny, which I feel is strongly unjust. Furthermore, as with myself, only patients at ASH have any private party interests in terms of the information generated by cases such as these, and I, as matter of deep respect for the privacy of patients, never fully or even accurately identify patients by name. So let there be backlash. The matters that I am dedicated to addressing in this blog are criminal, inhumane, and so radically malfeasant, that any challenges to my work in this sense are going to look awfully sad. 

       Things are moving along. There were over 75 visits to this blog in the last 24 hours, which is about twice what we've seen up until now. It is never too late to do the right thing, but is far too late when it comes to coming the aid of the patients at The Arizona State Hospital,  because the substandard medical-mental health care practices have been in existence sine time immemorial, and the abuse that patients at ASH are subjected in ongoing. So please, get involved today. 

paoloreed@gmail.com